At the session yesterday, 2 boys were having a seriously competitive battle playing Giants; another pupil was playing Skateboards and his recall of the 7 times table improved dramatically during the 30 minute session which was fantastic to see. It just shows that practice makes perfect!

Andrew Cleaver said of the session, “The kids were really excited to be able to play the games, it was very rewarding to see them smiling whilst learning at the same time!”

The team support 8 children each week at Beaumont Lodge School playing maths games to practice and consolidate the maths concepts that they have already learned in class. The sessions are fun, lively & very competitive and it’s always smiles all round from both the children and the volunteers!

Pictured from left to right are Sarah, Rachel & Magdelena.

Alf is a Senior Safety Engineer at GL Noble Denton, technical advisors to the oil and gas industry, based a short distance from the school. He has been volunteering each week since 2008, as part of Cares’ Number Partners project.

Like all the 132 Number Partner volunteers across Leicestershire, Alf plays board games and other fun activities with small groups of children to help boost their arithmetic skills and confidence.

Alf’s Number Partner sessions are so popular at Thorpe Acre they are called ‘Alf Time’. Rebecca Crawley, the school’s Acting Deputy Head Teacher, said: “Thorpe Acre Junior School would like to say a huge thank you to Alf who has volunteered as a Number Partner at our school on a weekly basis for over five years.

“He has helped over 60 children to improve their mental maths skills through the use of fun and exciting number games. The children have really enjoyed working with him and love playing the games. On behalf of all the children and staff ‘Thank you Alf’.”

Alf said: “It can be hard work at times but I’m encouraged and feel it’s been worthwhile when I hear from their teachers that the children look forward to my coming in and that they have made progress in their maths scores.”

Joanne Hudson, Number Partners Coordinator at Leicestershire Cares, said: “This project works in partnership with some excellent numeracy development work that is already happening in primary schools across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

“Number Partner volunteers give small groups of children the opportunity to practice and consolidate the skills that they have already learned in class, in a nurturing, supportive and fun environment. It provides a great boost to children’s self-confidence and esteem, promotes a positive view of maths and gives children a valuable insight into the world of business.”

Thorpe Acre is also supported by student volunteers from Loughborough University Action and this project is highly valued by both staff and children.

An engaged, motivated and talented workforce is at the heart of Alltruck’s strategic goals and Leicestershire Cares is a perfect fit with this. The broad cross section of activities available has meant employees throughout the business have been able to get involved, creating opportunities for our staff to support the local community whilst developing their own skills and experience.

Alltruck has always been committed to supporting our local community and as a company we have been involved with a number of Leicestershire Cares initiatives:

• Collect 4 Christmas Appeal
• Number Partners
• Go For Reading
• Community Safety Placements
• Interview Technique
• Employability Project for Schools

“As a business we have always been committed to supporting our local community, as shown by our support of local charities and sports teams in the past. That’s why Leicestershire Cares made perfect sense to us…it is a fantastic way as a company and as individuals to support great causes in Leicestershire and it also supports Alltruck’s focus on staff engagement.”

Paul Robinson, Managing Director

“Alltruck has been involved with Leicestershire Cares for just 6 months but already we have felt enormous benefit – the staff really value the chance to support local people who are having a difficult time, it’s so rewarding.  We are seeing volunteers increase in self-confidence, develop new skills, gain great respect from their colleagues and across the business fantastic relationships are developing which otherwise would have little opportunity to flourish. 

All this, and we’re having loads of fun too. Thank you Leicestershire Cares”

Victoria Curtis, Personnel Manager

“Myself and my colleagues have been taking part in Number Partners for two terms now.

The sessions are always lively and good fun! The fact you are playing a game makes the maths element a lot more enjoyable for the children and gives them the opportunity to develop their maths skills in a more relaxed environment. The games we have been playing focus on adding, subtracting and multiplication and it is very rewarding for us as volunteers to see the group improve their maths and grow in confidence week-on-week”

Mark Vigil, Number Partners volunteer at Caldecote Primary School

“The placement here has been the best few days of my life so far. I’m truly loving it”.

Andrew, Community Safety mentee

Leicestershire Cares is a charity that enables employees to volunteer in the community. They work with the homeless, children leaving care, ex-offenders, schoolchildren and community groups. Thousands are helped each year.

The Company of the Year and Winner of the Nicholas Corah Memorial Cup is vehicle hire and fleet managers Alltruck, which is headquartered at Scudamore Road in Leicester. Alltruck and its staff are involved in all Leicestershire Cares’ projects, including giving experience and other work opportunities to care leavers, the homeless and ex-offenders. Since last August Alltruck has given 235 hours of staff time to Cares.

The Volunteer of the Year is Robert Pike, team leader at National Grid. In 2012 Robert gave his time and expertise at 19 of the 22 Interview Technique Training sessions Cares ran at secondary schools, helping pupils prepare for what can be a daunting experience when they leave school. Robert has signed up for every single one of the 28 sessions Cares is running this year.

Team of the Year goes to the 60 managers from Bradgate Bakery who spent four days at Leicester Outdoor Pursuits Centre transforming a tired and unwelcoming boat house into a bright and useful space for the many groups who use the Centre.

Placement Provider of the Year is Leicester City Council’s Parks Services, which has shown continuous support for Cares and always strives to overcome any barriers to taking placements across all three programmes – for ex-offenders, the homeless and care leavers.

The ProHelp Award, for companies who provide professional advice to community groups for free, goes to consulting engineers GCA (UK). The firm, based at Swan Street in Leicester, completed eight ProHelp projects last year, for Loughborough Youth Café, Stathern War Memorial Institute, Huncote Partnership Library, Blaby & Whetstone Boys Club, 42^nd Leicester Scouts, Coplow Centre Billesdon, Home Start NWL and Houghton Village Hall.

Presenting the awards, Tim Strevens, joint managing director at Ford & Slater and a Cares board member, said: “It has been a wonderful year, with all projects going from strength to strength. To give just two examples: there was a target of completing 40 team challenges and 53 were achieved. We aimed to help 20 ex-offenders into work and helped 32 (the highest number to date), a saving to the taxpayer of £1,600,000, and all because you and your staff stepped up to the plate to volunteer.”

Paul Robinson, managing director at Company of the Year Alltruck, said: “We are delighted and very proud to be recognised in this way. The work that Leicestershire Cares does in the community is truly inspirational and is acknowledged by the enthusiasm for the project by the staff at Alltruck.”

Monica Kimche, director of Leicestershire Cares, said: “Congratulations to all the winners of the Leicestershire Cares’ Awards. I am immensely grateful to them all for the dedication and hard work they have shown in giving time to make such a significant difference in the community.”

Photos kindly supplied by Lionel Heap.

Carol, House-Keeping Manager at Best Western, said “Kim is a hard-working girl, and when head-office mentioned they had a vacant position, I said I know the perfect candidate”.  This news could not have come at a better time for Kim, who has just moved into her new flat in New Parks.  The future is definitely looking bright for Kim and we wish her all the best for the future.

Eight willing volunteers came from all three Alltruck depots across the East Midlands to complete the bush-trucker trial with snails, tripe and other insect delicacies also on the menu. The sponsored event, along with a staff raffle and collection boxes for visitors and customers, raised more than £400.

The fundraiser was the idea of Alltruck staff member Gemma Humphrys who will lead the Team Challenge at LCIL (Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living). The Challenge has been organised by the charity Leicestershire Cares which brings businesses and communities together through employee volunteering programmes.

Gemma said: “I’m thrilled at how successful this unusual event has been. The money raised will fund paint, brushes and other equipment for our volunteer team to decorate a training room at the charity”.

Paul Robinson, Managing Director, said: “The bush tucker trial is another example of how enthusiastic Alltruck and our employees are about the great work that Leicestershire Cares is doing and as long as it’s not alive and I’m not going to be sick I’ll let you torture the MD.”

Katharine Lightbown of Leicestershire Cares said: “Not only are the Alltruck volunteers showing a great appetite for their project at LCIL, they are also prepared to eat their way through no end of nasties to pay for the paint they’ll need. We are truly impressed by their dedication.”

“Julie’s commitment to the Go for Reading project over the last 5 years has been phenomenal! Thanks to Julie, large numbers of children have benefitted from her support. She is a star and a credit to Leicestershire Cares.” Gail Brown, Education Co-ordinator.

It’s the largest single number of pupils helped in one sitting by Interview Technique Training volunteers organised by Leicestershire Cares. The 34 volunteers spent four hours today at the College, helping pupils be ready to join the world beyond school.

Organised by Leicestershire Cares, the Interview Technique sessions give the young people an insight into what faces them when they go to a real interview. For most of the students, the exercise is the first interview they have faced.

This is the first time Cares has run the initiative in Coalville and the charity has been rewarded by a very high turnout of volunteers from local employers, including Brantano, Aggregate Industries and Ashfield In2Focus.

The volunteers run through typical questions interviewees might face, and give lots of feedback which helps boost confidence levels ahead of the real thing.

‘Star Interviewee’ certificates were awarded by the volunteers to the best performing pupils including Elle Briers and Lauren Bray.

Noel Melvin, the School Principal, said: “We have been looking forward to this event. We are grateful to all the volunteers for giving up their time. In the current economic climate, we are looking for ways to give our students an advantage. They appreciate the chance to practise their interview skills and get useful objective feedback. This event will fit into out wider work related learning programme . Many of these students will spending a week of their summer holiday on a work experience placement.”

Anita Osborn, Client Account Manager from Ashfield In2Focus, said: “We were really impressed with the students, their positive attitude and the amount of preparation that went into the day was a credit to them.”

Phil Howe, a Probation Officer based in Coalville said: “It was fun and rewarding to work with a group of students who managed to display strong communication skills and an abundance of ambition.”

Alice Jackson, a student from the school, said: “I have learnt to stay confident. The more you believe you can succeed, the more likely you are to succeed. It will help me to understand how to act in an interview and how to put myself across. I learnt that preparation is key and the more you prepare, the better you will come across.”

Sam Rossell, another student from the school said: “I found the mock interview very interesting. It was an experience to be in a real interview environment. It was nice to hear some constructive criticism from experienced people who have been through this. I will take all the feedback on board.”

Leicestershire Cares Education Co-ordinator Gail Brown said: “We’ve had an amazing response from volunteers and pupils for the first Interview Technique event run in Coalville. Last year we helped almost 4,000 pupils in Leicestershire schools. To help even more we need extra volunteers from businesses and other employers to come forward and lend their time and expertise.”

Despite the very changeable weather, the sun shone as Karla and Ollie got married at Leicester Town Hall.

We all wish them both health, wealth and happiness for the future.